Students advocate for HEOP in Albany

St. Bonaventure University students attended New York Student Aid Alliance’s Advocacy Day in Albany, New York, advocating for student aid and asking that the Higher Education Opportunity Program’s (HEOP) budget not be cut this year.
St. Bonaventure has been attending this conference for the last seven years, having taken 13 students this past Feb. 9.
“We are one of the only schools in Western New York that attends Advocacy Day,” said Margaret Young, ‘14, HEOP’s assistant director. “This year, I believe we were the only school that came from Western New York and we also traveled the farthest to attend.”
Students Nairee Taveras, Jeancarlos Aponte, Kadidja Ndiaye, Yvanessa Demosthenes and Gianni Martinez met with a representative from Sen. Cathy Young’s office, while Shania Brinkley, Wendy Santos, Darlyne Vasquez and Asia Williams met with Assemblyman Joe Giglio.
“The students’ job on Advocacy Day is to share their personal stories of how HEOP has impacted their lives and why, without it, they may not have been graduating from college,” said Young. “If the budget were cut, our HEOP office would not be able to accept the 22 to 24 new students we currently take every year and we would lose a lot of our programming money.”
Both Sen. Young and Assemblyman Giglio support HEOP, Young added.
“We felt it was important to still meet with them to ensure their continued support, especially because they represent the Cattaraugus County area that Bona’s is in,” she said.
Taveras, a senior strategic communications and digital media major, felt that attending the conference was very important for low-income students.
“We saw how impactful this program truly is,” Taveras said. “It allows many people of color to attend universities. It was very refreshing to know that people are fighting for us.”
Taveras added that the HEOP class of 2018 has 20 members and they will be the first class to graduate all 20 of those members.
“HEOP does work,” she said. “It is very powerful.”
Thomas Buttafarro, the director of Board, Community and Government Relations, said there was a group of St. Bonaventure students that attended Advocacy Day to advocate for the university specifically, as well. Those students, including Geoffrey Broadbent, Joshua McGraw and Ashley Foster, who either volunteered or resided in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus or Allegany Counties.
“Those who attended presented themselves very professionally and represent St. Bonaventure well,” said Buttafarro.
He also added that he thought the day was a success.
“This really was a great day and a great experience for the students,” Buttafarro said. “The day ended with the SBU group being invited onto the floor of the Assembly and introduced by Assemblyman Giglio.”